Pop ups

Mick,

Do you use XP? Service pack 2 eliminates these irritations. It also allows you to easily choose your pop ups from pages under your approval.

Find a mag with a SP2 CD or use broadband to upgrade. The file is over 70MB so on dial up you could be there for a day or so

Dave

I also read it can be as big as 200Mb, I've got the disk somewhere mick if you want me to post it to you.
Martin

Using things like Spybot regularly helps, but it only cleans up, it doesn't stop it happening.

If you're not running XP (and I seem to recall you aren't - 98?) you could try a different browser that does more to combat pop-ups.

Give Mozilla Firefox a try, it's only a small download and works great IMHO.

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

cheers,
Paul

p.s the full XP SP2 is around 260mb.. it's a beast!

Chaps

I run 98se and have been advised not to switch to XP because there are too many problems with it. I cannot remember what these problems were supposed to be.

I have NTL Broadband 300.

Marin

Thanks for the offer but what is the disk ?

Regards

Mick

I'd say you've been advised wrongly.

XP is way ahead of 98 in terms of pretty much everything, the main thing being stability - my desktop at work stays up months between reboots and I do a lot of stuff on it.

What sort of PC do you have (make/model)?

This can make a big difference, most problems people report with XP are usually down to third party drivers and not really XP itself, if you have say a Compaq or Dell any additional drivers you download are likely to have been tested very thoroughly versus the PC the chap down the road built.

(And if I may answer for Martin, I assume he meant the Windows XP SP2 CD, which is just the service pack if you already have XP installed).

Paul

Mick its being included by microsoft on the cover disk of free stuff that comes with many computer mags.

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I'd say you've been advised wrongly.

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there's an understatement. The only potential issue with upgrading to XP would be a need to upgrade the amount of RAM in your pc - 512MB needed for it to play nicely.

The latest Norton blocks pop-ups, but ISTR you're running an old version?

cheers, Martin

E-mail:- MartinPayne (at) Dial.Pipex.com. Put "Naim" in the title.

If you go to the Google website and download the Googletoolbar, it has an option on there to prevent popups.

Regards
Clive

95/98 etc whilst a bit behind the times, they were all emune to some of the virus outbreaks last year as they are not NT based!! So whilst a bit in the dark ages, this may be why you were advised not to switch.

XP with SP2, whilst heavy, is very good security wise..

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Originally posted by cunningplan:
If you go to the Google website and download the Googletoolbar, it has an option on there to prevent popups.

Regards
Clive

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I second that advice. It works very well and is less intrusive than the XP one. In addition, the Google Toolbar has a couple of other very handy features. I couldn't do without it now.

Edouard S:

I recommend that unless your hardware is more recent (i.e. Pentium 4, at least 512MB, a large and fast HD, etc.) XP would run slowly and be an annoyance.
And I would check with the manufacturer of the hardware to see what needed to be updated BEFORE going with XP or any of the updates.
I had troubles with SP2 on both my HP Pavillion machines (quite up to date) and ultimately uninstalled it. Quite the hassle.
HP was less than helpful and the sound card on one of my machines is disabled with no way of getting it back on line. I've purchased a different one and will install it when I have time, but not without cursing HP and Microsoft all the while.
Even then I'm not certain I'll install SP2, perhaps waiting until SP3.
David

Treat yourself to new PC Mick. I suggest one with a 3Ghz cpu or better, 1Gb of RAM, and an 80Gb disc. It won't cost a lot these days and you will be surprised how powerful and stable they are now compared to PCs of the Win98 era. It will also have WinXP SP2 already installed.

I have 4 PCs (self built mongrels!) all of which get heavy use and have had absolutely no problems with SP2. One of them is an ancient 700mhz AMD and it runs XP SP2 no problem.

Gey pop up stopper as a free download from download.com. It works.

Bob

Congrats, Jez on your luck with SP2.
I agree: Mick, get yourself to the store and buy a hot new computer. You won't know what you did without it. They're fast, cheap and disposable. Too bad about that last part.
David

Since were on the subject of SP2, here is something I had posted on another thread :

I had a couple of glitches with the XP Service Pack 2 until, on Microsoft's advice, I

1) Uninstalled it

2) downloaded the version for computer professionnals which is somewhere on the download site, and left the file on the desktop

3) re-started my computer in Safe mode, as suggested before, which you can access by pressing the F8 button while the restarting the computer

4) Installed the Service pack while in that mode, and restarted it in normal mode afterwards.

This solved my problems on my desktop. I also used this procedure on my laptop, and have not had any problems. It seems this procedure, among other things, prevents any incompatibility with software drivers in the computer.

Edouard S.

I'll try that method when I get brave enough to install SP2 again.
Thanks, Edouard!
David

There is a way of installing SP2 in one go along with your original XP disc.

You have to format your drive reinstall everything from scratch, it's called slipstreaming.

It's a bit fiddly to do but if you follow the instructions, SP2 Slipstreaming it works a treat, and you shouldn't get any problems.

Regards
Clive

Chaps

I downloaded Mozilla yesterday and the same pop ups kept appearing.

I ununstalled it and took the advice on NTL's website and installed Webwasher.

The situation has improved but i still get about half a dozen that take some getting rid of, you only have a yes button to click rather than a cancel or go away button.

Is there anything wrong with installing several anti pop up programes or will they confuse each other.

Regards

Mick

Allen

I have not purchased a new PC with XP in it. I only have 128 Ram on a 98se system.

It seems a bit drastic buying a new precessor just to avoid a few pop ups.

So how have I been rude.

Regards

Mick

If you've installed and are using Firefox and are still getting pop-up windows it might be that you have something else on your PC that is causing it.

What I would do is:

Get Spybot from http://security.kolla.de
Install it, check for updates and download them, and run it, and get rid of whatever it says it's found.

Visit http://housecall.antivirus.com and follow your nose to do the free scan, best be sure Norton's not missed anything

Get StartupCPL from http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml
and see what is set to start automatically when your PC boots up

Spyware these days is bloody invasive and at work the helpdesk spend more time asking me how to deal with it that on "real" viruses, it's not pleasant but it's the reality of having an Internet connection these days.

How and when do the pop-ups appear and what are they for (always the same place)?

Is it when you visit specific sites, or just when you're connected to the Internet and, so far as you're aware, not doing anything?

Incidentally, Dell are doing full systems now from around £230 with vat delivery and Windows XP.. frightening!

Paul

[This message was edited by Paul Hutchings on Sun 21 November 2004 at 10:19.]

Allen

I downloaded the google toolbar and the pop ups continued unabated.

Regards

Mick

Paul

Thanks for that, I will do as you suggest.

Regards

Mick

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Originally posted by Mick Parry:
Allen

I downloaded the google toolbar and the pop ups continued unabated.

Regards

Mick

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I take it you have ticked the "block pop-up windows" option in the options panel ?

Edouard S.

quote:

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The situation has improved but i still get about half a dozen that take some getting rid of, you only have a yes button to click rather than a cancel or go away button.

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sounds like they're not internet popups but windows messaging popups.
Have a look here.